Claim: Sam George in 2024 promised to attack President Mahama if he fails to abolish the Communication Service Tax (CST) in his first budget
Source: Facebook
Verdict: Misleading
Researched by Gifty Danso
A video showing the Minister of Communication, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, promising to attack President John Dramani Mahama if he fails to scrap the Communication Service Tax (CST), has resurfaced on social media.
In the first 19 seconds of the 43 seconds video, Samuel Nartey George in conversation on Citi TV’s Upside Down programme is heard saying; “If President Mahama becomes president January 2025, and the first budget is read, which will be sometime in March of 2025 and the budget doesn’t announce the scrapping of CST, me Sam George, I will attack President Mahama.”
A caption on the Citi TV clip read: “Sam George 2024 promise cancellation of CST to reduce cost,” suggesting that the clip was from a 2024 interview where he was talking about data prices.
The second part of the video captures the minister saying: “I have been trending over the weekend on Twitter, not necessarily for my looks or my works, but absolutely because whether orchestrated or otherwise, people think that data prices must be cheaper by the stroke of my pen.” He was speaking on data prices at the World Telecommunications and Information Society Day on May 19, 2025.
A former presidential staffer shared the video on Facebook with a caption that read: “Sam George is yet to attack the President for not scrapping CST in his first budget.” The video and captions associated with it seeks to question the Minister’s stance on data prices at the time.
This fact-check report will verify whether:
- Sam George made the comments in 2024
- He was referring to the Communication Service Tax
Fact-check
Using Google Reverse Image Search, GhanaFact found that the video has been shared multiple times on Facebook between May 23, 2025, and May 25, 2025 ( here, here, and here).
Checks show that Sam George made the comments about scrapping the supposed tax handle on May 16, 2022, on the Upside Down programme of Channel One TV, formerly Citi TV and not in 2024, as the caption on the video had claimed.
Additionally, GhanaFact noted that the tax topic under discussion was the Electronic Transfer Levy, commonly called E-Levy, and not CST. We found that CST slipped into the conversation when Sam George was responding to a question on E-Levy.
This was evident in the questions posed by the two hosts to Sam George.
Transcription of the exchange between the host and Sam George
Host: “Do you believe or do you think that Mr. John Mahama will be president 2025?… And when he comes, will he scrap the E-Levy?
Sam George: “… Oh as for scrapping of E-levy, if he doesn’t do it …If President Mahama becomes president January 2025 and the first budget is read, which will be sometime in March 2025, and the budget doesn’t announce a scrapping of CST, me Sam George, I will attack president Mahama on it,” he is heard saying (between 42:07 – 42:47).
In subsequent comments on whether he has what it takes to attack the president, Sam George referred to E-Levy again: “This E-Levy conversation had been going on for months; he had never spoken because he was doing the proper consultations on it.”
From the above, it is clear that the Ningo-Prampram MP misspoke in his response referring to E-Levy as CST.
GhanaFact has observed the sharing of video clips that combine previous and current views of political appointees of the NDC administration on topical national issues by political opponents.
The videos, often misleading, are shared with the intent of exposing the supposed double standards and insincerity of the appointees on national issues. (Find a similar report here.)
Verdict
Therefore, the claim that Sam George promised to attack Mahama over CST is misleading.
